Research Academy
The Research Process
A training to “ what is research”
Lab Culture

Take Notes : You wont remember everything
◦ Document everything
 Readable
 Don’t erase changes just place a line through so you can
remember why you made the change
 If you can read it later why did you take your notes
 Easy to understand
 Number pages
 Stay organized
◦ Notes for your notes
 Date every entry
 Make side notes if you write something that you didn’t
quite understand
◦ Define terms
 Keep track of terms that you will use often and have the
definition in your own words for future reference.
Lab Culture

Understanding Rules and Expectations

Safety





Always be aware of your surroundings
Lab Safety is the first thing learned in each lab
It’s for your own safety
Accountability
 Be responsible : your doing this because you want to
 Be self motivated and able to work independently
Promote teamwork
 You can get more done as a team that works well together
 A team is only as strong as its weakest link

Productivity
 Keep working
 Never sacrifice quality for quantity or speed
What Is Research?

“Investigation of an idea using the
scientific method.”
Scientific Method
Engineering Method
Research Method
State your question
Define the problem
Identify and develop your topic
Do background research
Do background research
Literature Survey
Formulate your hypothesis
Specify requirements
Set Goals
Design experiment, establish
procedure
Create multiple solutions, and
choose the best one
Theoretical Methods
Test your hypothesis
Build prototype
Experimental Methods
Analyze your results and draw
conclusions
Test and redesign as needed
Data analysis and interpretation
Communicate results
Communicate results
Communicate results
Identify and develop your topic

Finding a Research Topic
◦ What interests you?
◦ What is relevant?
◦ What does your mentor want you to research?

Interest into a Topic
◦ What topics in your field relate to your interest?
◦ Develop your idea into a topic with a mentor.
◦ Search for similar topics being researched.
Identify and develop your topic

Develop a Question
◦ Start thinking about the who, what when and where?
◦ Focus on the How and why?
◦ Begin writing questions that your research could
answer.

Ask yourself the Questions
◦ Who cares?
◦ Why would others think it’s a question worth asking?
Question to Topic

Develop the answers
◦ Name your topic….
 I am trying to learn about_______.’
‘
◦ Add an indirect question…..
 ‘I am studying /working on_______’
◦ Because I want to find out
 who/what/where/whether/why/how_’

Example research topic description
◦ I am studying the effects of synthetic jet flow on an airfoil trailing edge.
◦ Because I want to find out if synthetic jets can prolong an airfoil stall.
◦ In order to make more efficient turbine engine blades.
Activity
Motivation
 Describe your motivation
Question to Topic
 Develop a research topic description
Significance

Ask a question that will solve a problem
◦ Is the problem of current interest?
◦ Is it likely to continue in the future?
◦ How large is the population that is affected by the problem?
◦ Would research findings lead to some useful change?
◦ Is there evidence or support for continued research?
◦ What current research is being completed in a similar problem?
Literature Survey

Don’t start from nothing
◦ Be a smart researcher use the library, internet,
and articles to find information.

Types of information
◦ When looking through literature take note of the
researchers involved, time period and credibility.
◦ Look for current similar topics as your topic.
◦ Find articles that can give examples of the best
ways to do things to prevent the same mistakes
they did.
Literature Survey

Use your literature survey to find more
literature
◦ Most of the time researchers reference other
researchers

Document everything
◦ Organize your Literature survey so you can refer
back as needed during the research process.
◦ Cite Sources: Good preparation for final research
report.

Literature Survey is a continuous process
throughout the research process
Set Goals

What are the variables?
 Independent variables
 Not changed by other factors
 Can be controlled
 Dependent variables
 The outcome of another factor could change this

What will be measured?
 Ex: Lift, Drag, Temperature, Growth, divergence,
convergence

What relationships will be examined?
 Ex: Angle of Attack vs. Lift , Decay vs. Time,
Convergence vs. Iterations
Set Goals

Set yourself a timeline with deadlines
 Think back to your problem statement and
question you want to answer.

Plan monthly weekly and daily deadlines

Time management
◦ Don’t wait till last minute
 Break down projects with time goals
Activity
Goals
 List a personal educational goal for what
you would like to accomplish in:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
1 week
1 month
6 months
1 year
5 years
Theoretical Methods

What equations will be used?
◦ Governing equations
 Simplified methods
 Assumptions

Organize calculation
◦ Excel
 Visual Basic Coding
◦ Matlab
◦ Write all equations out to verify correctness
Theoretical Methods

What are the physics behind the issue?
◦ The relation between theory and experiment
 Simplified methods – Ex: Laminar, Turbulence

Once the theory is found is it testable
◦
◦
◦
◦

Is it physically not testable
Micro scale
Too big
Not costly
Some research can’t be tested
Experimental Methods

Things to consider
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

What experiments will be ran?
Where will you run them?
When will you be able to?
How long will it take to get sample data?
Who will be conducting experiments?
Set up
◦
◦
◦
◦
Materials
Manufacturing
Assembly
Data Acquisition systems
Experimental Methods

Costs
◦ From setup to final time spent
◦ Who will budget the finance?
◦ How will you get Funding?

Running experiments
◦ Configurations
 Time management
◦ Test Plan
 Plan of action
◦ Is data valid?
 Is there a control test
Data Analysis

Is the data collected acceptable
◦ Outliers

What type of graph is needed to express the
results?
◦ Ex: Pie chart, Line graphs, Log
◦ Are you able to graph your relations in your goals?

What was the conclusion?
◦ Was your question answered?
 Does the problem statement need to be changed?
◦ How well does the experimental match the
theoretical ?
 Does the problem statement need to be changed?
Data Analysis

Did you consider all the variables?
◦ Is an iteration necessary?
◦ Do you need to rethink the methods?
◦ Did you consider the error?

What type of error is being produced?
◦ Controlled error
 Bias
◦ Acceptable error
 Within a range

Were all the goals met?
Group Activity
Good graph vs. bad graph
 What’s wrong with this graph?
Communicate Results

Final Report
◦ Course Requirement
◦ Masters thesis
◦ Competitions

Publication in a Scientific Journal
◦ Follow Scientific journal writing standards
◦ AIAA technical journal formatting

Presentation
◦
◦
◦
◦
Classrooms
Campus
Thesis Defense
Competitions